PERKIOMEN — A couple of things happened Friday night at Perk Valley in the second round GNALBL playoff game between the Raiders and Lafayette Auto.

For one, Liam Grande showed why he was named the league’s top pitcher. For another, LA turned in a performance that was the virtual opposite of their 12-5 beatdown of Presidential Caterers the night prior.

Combining those two things is a recipe for a blowout, and that’s exactly what happened. Grande baffled the Patriot lineup for five innings and the Raider bats gave him more than enough support Friday night on the way to PV’s 11-1 mercy-rule win.

“As good as we were yesterday, this is the worst I’ve ever seen us play,” LA coach Joe Giavanisci said. “It was a complete 180. We got down on ourselves, got frustrated, and started to labor.

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“It was errors,” Giavanisci said. “We had an error at second base, and there were a couple of key balls that got through people that don’t usually get through.”

After striking first with Dan Bier’s RBI groundout in the second inning, things fell apart for the Pats. They went on to give up three in the third — largely behind four walks and a hit batsman — three in the fourth after a leadoff error on a routine grounder, and four more in the fifth after a ball that would have been the second out of the inning popped in and out of the left fielder’s glove.

With the loss, Lafayette Auto will play a rematch against Presidential Caterers Saturday at Plymouth Whitemarsh — though PC will technically be the home team.

“We have to put it behind us,” Giovanisci said. “They’re young kids … they’ll forget it. Tomorrow is a new day, and we have to start from scratch.”

Perk Valley, on the other hand, could do little wrong. The Raiders tallied 10 hits in just five innings, and also managed to work six walks off of Lafayette’s pitchers.

“It was just a matter of time before we started hitting and making things happen,” Tyson said. “I can’t say enough about the way we hit and ran the bases—we did a great job.”

At the plate for PV, Matt Kellar, John Turner and Grande all tallied multiple hits. Turner led the squad in RBI, with four, and Kellar and Grande finished with two apiece.

“We hit, which was great,” PV coach Tim Tyson said, “but it starts with Liam Grande. He came out and did a fantastic job. He worked ahead of batters and really led the way for us.”

Grande, the recently-crowned GNALBL Pitcher of the Year after sporting a spotless 4-0 record to go with 2.84 earned-run average and 44 strikeouts in 32 innings, was sublime. He allowed only two hits, walked two, and struck out six in his five innings of work.

“My fastball and curveball were pretty accurate,” Grande said. “I had pretty good control, and threw a lot of strikes tonight. It feels good to keep the pitch count low and conserve my arm (for a relief appearance Sunday).”

Grande also managed to get the game-winning hit, a single in the bottom of the fifth that plated Tyler Krause.

“It was pretty nice,” Grande said. “I just swung on the first pitch, hoped for the best, and got it down.”

“He’s such a competitor,” Tyson said of Grande. “He loves to come out in a situation like this, knowing that it’s a big game and he has no problem taking the ball.

“The rest of the team feeds off of that,” Tyson went on. “They know they’re going to get a good pitching performance out of him — I think it lifts everyone up … He’s such a key player. I can’t say enough good things about him.”

PV plays Whitpain, who defeated JP Mascaro Friday night, 5-1, on Sunday at 11 a.m. If the Raiders can scratch out a win in that one, they’ll have two tries to win the league title and advance to the Region 3 Tournament early next week.

“Today we hit the ball really well, and I told them that we’ve got to build off of this and come in strong no matter who we’re playing,” Tyson said.